Ralls Coston Clotfelter, 85, died Aug. 19 at his Lofall home with family members by his side after a yearlong battle with prostate cancer.
Ralls was born Jan. 29, 1924 in Gadsden, Ala., and was the youngest of six children.
In 1942 he joined the US Navy at 17 years old with the help of his father.
During the war he served with Navy Patrol Squadron VB-142 as a turret gunner on a Lockheed Ventura, medium range bomber.
His war tour took him to Midway Island, then onto Tarawa Atoll in the western pacific for a seven-month mission of combat patrols in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.
He was a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross Air Medal presented to him during a 2006 special ceremony at Naval SubmarineBase Bangor.
He was proud of his military service and very much a historian of the US war effort in the Pacific Theater. He married Arlene Raymond in Downey California in 1948 and began a 20 year career working for Santa-Fe Railroad as a train switchman in the Los Angeles, San Bernardino rail yards and the high desert track lines of California.
He moved his family from Yucaipa, Calif., to Poulsbo, in 1968. He worked the past 30 years as a general contractor selling and constructing numerous commercial steel buildings in western Washington.
His job on each project was “working very hard” from beginning to end.
Ralls was as kind, gentle and easy going person as you can meet. He loved his close family of children and grand children.
Family was everything to him and it easily showed during the many family gatherings at the Clotfelter home.
He always met you halfway to the house giving you his southern ‘hey’ and welcome. He enjoyed telling people ideas for them to contemplate by sharing his “other side of the issue” views on local government, business, school boards, transportation issues and the timber industry to anyone who would read or listen to him.
He spoke on these topics to encourage others to stop and think about improved ways to accomplish these business practices for the prosperity of the local area, its citizens and future generations.
Ralls was a member of Poulsbo American Legion Post No. 245, and the Breidablik Hall Building Committee.
He loved to fly and held a private pilot’s license for 60 years.
He is survived by his wife of 61 years Arlene; children Pamela (Rich Collingwood) North Bend, Joe (Laura) Silverdale, Don Olympia, and Denise (George Bissell) Clarkston; grandchildren Kim and Travis Kubicek, Erik, Jacob and Kendall Clotfelter; and one great-grandchild, Lindsey Eliason.
The Clotfelter family thanked Group Health Hospice-Tacoma/Kitsap for their loving care and attention to Ralls and his family.
Services will be held at a later date. Online memorial may be seen at www.lewischapel.com
